I thought this weeks reading was super interesting and informative. Here are my thoughts!
After reading what Scott has to say with his proposal on the old ways of marketing and PR, I would have to say that there are some things I agree with and some I do not. He made a lot of good points about how the web and social media have forever changed how we do things. For example, “As it is for billions of other global consumers, the web is my primary source of information when I consider a purchase (Scott, 2013, p. 33).” This holds extremely true for me. Anytime I even think of purchase something I end up online to see what everyone else is saying about it. People are brutally honest and if I am going to purchase something, especially a big ticket item, I need to know if it is going to do what the company says it is going to do.
Scott made a handful of good points about the old rules of business but there were a couple that stood out to me because I do not necessarily think that they are completely inapt like he states he does. One rule of marketing that he considers untrue at this time is that, “Advertising needs to appeal to the masses (Scott, 2013, p. 36).” In thinking about this particular rule I would say that it still holds true. I know that it is easier to reach a mass amount of people through means of the internet but it still has to be appealing to them. Some kind of thought process needs to go into it to make the product or service sell which is ultimately the goal in many cases. Without the mass appeal the product or service it will not succeed. A second rule of marketing that he considers outdated is that creativity is not the top of importance when it comes to advertising (Scott, 2013, p. 36). I simply cannot agree with this statement. As someone who takes pride in the creativity aspects of campaigns and looks for something that has not been done in an advertisement I would have to say that this is still an extremely important factor. The creativity aspect of advertising is always what would draw me in when thinking about it as a potential career. I would hate to think that this aspect of the campaign was unimportant just because the internet and social networking exist. I would rather think about them as even more mediums that I can use to be creative for a campaign. I think that these are two rules we should keep and hold onto for a while.
Although I did not necessarily agree with his points about marketing, I do agree with some of his points for PR. He states that in the past, “Nobody saw the actual press release except a handful of reporters and editors (Scott, 2013, p. 40).” I think that this is very true about the past press releases and doesn’t hold true anymore. Now, I can go on any companies’ site and read their last few press releases. More recently people have been able to get closer and closer to companies. Private press releases are a thing of the past. Consumers nowadays are interested and know a lot more than they used to. Another point that Scott says is untrue is that PR and marketing used to be run completely separate with their own goals (Scott, 2013, p. 41). I agree with him in that this is not the case anymore. Marketing and PR seemed to be joined at the hip nowadays. Companies want to make sure that all of their people are on the same page and the company looks like a whole instead of different segments. This technique also allows for companies to merge marketing and PR departments and have people who would not normally be working together work together. To me, these are two rules that can get thrown out based on social media and the internet bringing everyone closer together.
Scott, D.(2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.
